Brian Nichols

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Brian Gene Nichols
Nichols after his surrender on March 12, 2005
Born	December 10, 1971 (1971-12-10) (age 36) Baltimore, Maryland , United States
Charge(s)	murder, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault on a police officer, battery, theft, carjacking, rape and escape.
Penalty	Pending
Status	Incarcerated, trial ongoing

Brian Gene Nichols (born December 10, 1971) is known for his escape and alleged killing spree in the Fulton county courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia on March 11, 2005.

Contents 1 Early life 2 The shootings and escape 3 Manhunt and capture 4 The Confession 5 Indictment 6 Nichols' family reaction 7 Courthouse security concerns 8 Trial delayed 9 The Trial 10 See also 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Early life

What little is known about Nichols' early life is that he came from a middle class family. He went to but did not receive his high school diploma in 1989 from the Cardinal Gibbons School^[1] in Baltimore, Maryland and attended college at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, for three semesters from 1989 to 1990. At that time, he was also a linebacker on their football team. Nick Pergine, who played football with Nichols at Kutztown, said Nichols' massive physical presence and martial-arts skills earned him a reputation as someone to be careful around. Jake Williams, who coached Nichols at Kutztown, compared Nichols' physique(6'1" 210 pound) with that of NFL star John Mobley, who also played at the university.

Berks County records show that Nichols had been arrested at least three times during his short stay at the university.. In 1990, he was charged with terroristic threats, simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment, stemming from an incident in a university dining hall, according to court documents. He pleaded guilty to the two lesser charges and the others were dropped.

The next year, Nichols was arrested twice in a month for criminal trespassing, misdemeanor criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. Those charges were later dropped. After his brief stay at Kutztown, Nichols went to Newberry College from 1992 to 1993, and played football there. Athletic spokesman Ryan Gross said that during that time Nichols was kicked off the football team for stealing from a dorm room.

After dropping out of school, Nichols moved to Georgia in 1995. He worked for Hewlett-Packard for eight years, as a UNIX system engineer in the computer field.^[2] Nichols last employment was working as a computer engineer for UPS. Company spokesman Norm Black says Nichols joined the unit in March 2004 and left in September 2004, which was when he was arrested in the rape case.^[3] According to his brother, Nichols earned a six-figure income and regularly attended church.

He was arrested after being charged with the brutal assault of his former girlfriend of 8 years after their break up. Nichols forced his way into her home, bound her with duct tape at gun point and raped her. He was charged with rape, aggravated assault with intent to rape,aggravated sodomy, burglary, false imprisonment and possession of a firearm during commission of a crime. The first case had ended in a mistrial with a hung jury. Nichols had told people in the courthouse "I'm not going to go lying down" when he learned that he would be retried. Nichols’ friends warned the DA’s office he might try to escape and one friend told prosecutors that Nichols planned to escape and asked him to leave a credit card in the pocket of the suit jacket he would wear to court. Nichols mother also emailed the Fulton County Sheriff's Office to tell them she believed her son may try to take an officers weapon. The retrial began the next week and the tension heightened even further 2 days before the crime spree when deputies escorting Nichols from the courthouse to his jail cell noticed something in his shoes. They found two sharp "shanks," common jailhouse weapons fashioned out of metal which possibly came from a door hinge. Nichols also taunted Assistant District Attorney Gayle Abramson and Assistant District Attorney Ash Joshi during the retrial by saying "you're doing a much better job this time" and he was apparently aware that his case was going poorly. The actions prompted Judge Barnes to have a meeting the day before the escape with counsel and he asked for extra security during Nichols scheduled testimony that Friday since the prosecution in the rape case had planned to call its last witness that day and jury deliberations were upon him.. Nichols would have faced life in prison if convicted.^[4]

[edit] The shootings and escape

The State of Georgia alleges the following events took place on March 11, 2005: 51-year old female sheriff's deputy, 5'1 Cynthia Hall was routinely assigned to guard 6'1 Nichols during the time frame of his two trials under Judge Barnes. Nichols arrives at the courthouse on a bus and she escorted him from a basement detention area to a holding cell on the 8th floor of the Fulton County Justice Tower. Deputy Dilcie Thomas said that on the morning of the attack, she urged Hall three times to get another deputy to go with her upstairs to a holding cell with Nichols, where he was going to change from jail garb before appearing in court. Hall told Thomas, “No, I got him.” She seemed to trust him and did not require he wear customary leg shackles, even though, the day before his attack, he had been caught with hinges hidden in his shoes. The hinges could have been used as weapons. She escorted Nichols to the holding area where she was to remove his handcuffs so that he could change into civilian clothes. Hall releases one cuff and turns Nichols around to unhook the remaining cuff, which is dangling from his wrist. Nichols brutally attacked the deputy pushing her into another open cell. The video surveillance camera recorded as he overpowered the deputy hitting her so hard in the face her feet left the ground. He emerges from the cell with her gun belt which included her radio and weapon magazines. Nichols retrieved her keys from the floor and locked Deputy Hall in the cell. Nichols entered another cell and changed into his street clothes and is seen about 4 1/2 minutes later leaving the holding cell area. He used the keys to open a lock box where he armed himself with her Beretta .40 cal. semi-automatic pistol.^[5]] According to hospital sources, the deputy sustained significant brain injury, facial fractures and a large laceration to her forehead. After the attack, her condition was reported as critical, but she survived. Deputy Hall's injuries were so severe that Grady Memorial Hospital Doctors initially believed that she had sustained a gunshot wound to the face.^[6]

Nichols then crossed over to the old courthouse via a skybridge, where he entered the private chambers of Judge Rowland W. Barnes. He encountered case managers Susan Christy and Gina Clarke Thomas along with attorney David Allman. Nichols made them all sit on the floor and held them at gunpoint while inquiring as to where Judge Barnes' was. Sgt. Grantley White, the court baliff, entered the chambers and was also met by an armed Nichols. Sgt. White reportedly asked what was going on and Nichols replied 'Sarge, I got nothing to lose.'^[7] He was held at gunpoint and Nichols also disarmed him. Nichols forced Sgt. White to handcuff Christy, Thomas and Allman but not before Sgt. White was able to push an emergency button in the chambers. When Nichols heard court security trying to raise Sgt. White on his radio he handcuffed Sgt. White and forced him into a bathroom and exited the chambers. He entered courtroom 8-F from a door behind the judge's bench. He found Judge Barnes in the courtroom presiding over motions in a civil trial. He shot him at close range in the back of the head. Nichols scanned the prosecution table apparently in search of the Assistant District Attorneys that were prosecuting and when he saw they were not in the court room he lowered the gun and shot Julie Brandau, the court reporter, in the head. Nichols then walked down and checked a side room where witnesses were held before trial began, apparently seeking his rape victim, but she was late that day and the room was empty. He then ran out of the courtroom and down seven flights of stairs and leaves the old courthouse via an emergency exit onto Martin Luther King Drive. Sgt. Hoyt Teasley had just arrived at work and responded to the alarm before he picked up a radio or even put on his bulletproof vest. Sgt. Teasley had observed Nichols enter the emergency stairwell when he began to pursue him. The two ran down to the ground floor where Nichols reportedly exited the stairwell and fired several shots in the air creating a chaotic situation on the street. He then turned and waited for Sgt. Teasley to exit the building. When he did he shot him numerous times. Barnes and Brandau died at the scene and Sgt. Teasley was pronounced DOA from gunshot wounds to his abdomen at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Nichols ran across the street into the Underground parking garage across from the courthouse. During his escape Nichols carjacks at least five vehicles. He first took a 2002 Mazda Tribute from Deputy Solicitor General Duane Cooper who was entering the parking garage. Nichols reportedly walked up to Cooper, pointed a gun a him, and said "Give it up, mother… .” Cooper exited the car and Nichols got in, backed out, and sped away in the vehicle down down Martin Luther King Blvd. Larry McCrary who works in the Fulton County juvenile court saw Nichols fleeing and followed him as he turned on Peachtree Street and then into a parking garage near Underground Atlanta. McCrary said he parked his vehicle to block the entrance and exit to the parking deck and was able to flag down three Atlanta Police officers. He said after the officers went inside the parking deck he saw Nichols calmly walk out at a entrance down the street and approach a tow truck which was at the corner of Peachtree and Wall streets.^[8] Nichols pointed a gun at the driver, Deronta Franklin, and ordered him out. Nichols sped off in the tow truck and traveled north briefly on Peachtree Street, then turns left onto Walton, a one-way street, heading the wrong way. He enters the Imperial parking garage on Cone Street.

On the fourth floor of the garage, Nichols hijacks a 2004 Mercury Sable owned by Almeta Kilgo, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution employee. He orders her to stay in the car but she escapes. Nichols left in the car and headed north on Spring Street. He drove inside the parking lot at the Apparel Mart and confronted Sung Chung in his 1997 Isuzu Trooper. Chung, who works at a jewelry store there said put a gun to his head and first ordered to get in the passenger seat, and then to the floor board. Chung said as Nichols was pulling out of the garage, he ordered him to give him his jacket so he could change his appearance. It was while Nichols was changing into the jacket that Chung saw an opportunity and unlocked the passenger door and jumped out before the car exited the lot. Nichols drove to the Centennial parking lot across from CNN Center, at 9:20 a.m. and only 15 minutes after the first carjacking, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Don O’Briant became the final carjack victim. He pulled the SUV into a handicapped space. Nichols, who isn't wearing a shirt, gets out of the car and asks for directions to Lenox Square. Then he pulls a gun, orders O'Briant out of his car and tells him to get into the trunk. O'Briant refuses and Nichols hits him with the gun. He hijacked O'Briant's 1987 Honda Accord. O'briant sustained a broken wrist and received 15 stitches above his eye.

Approximately 14 hours later the Honda was located on the first level of the same parking deck from which it was reported stolen. Investigators suspected Nichols may have abandoned the car after spotting an easier target, taking the owner with him to avoid being reported. Police tried to determine if there were any missing persons or stolen vehicle reported from the area, but their efforts were be hampered by the fact that the NCAA Southeastern Conference basketball tournament was taking place a few blocks away and thousands of out-of-town visitors were in the area at the time. Police then recovered security camera images taken Friday morning inside a stairwell in the parking deck which showed a shirtless Nichols putting on a jacket, allegedly taken from Chung, as he went to a lower level and disappeared. Security camera images did not yield clues as to how Nichols left the parking garage.

Nichols was featured on America's Most Wanted that night and the manhunt expanded.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard's office later announced that a 911 call had been received from a man claiming to be Nichols as the late-afternoon news conference was being televised. Nichols threatened to kill Assistant District Attorney[Gayle Abramson and Assistant District Attorney Ash Joshi who were prosecuting his rape case.

[edit] Manhunt and capture

Atlanta police Chief Richard Pennington announced it was believed that Nichols took a MARTA train north. Nichols apparently traveled on foot from Centennial Parking garage to the Omni MARTA station which is less than a block from the the parking deck.

There was an incident at approximately 10:40 p.m. where Nichols attacked 2 people at the Heights at Lenox apartments near the Lenox MARTA subway station in northern Atlanta's popular Buckhead neighborhood. Nichols tried to kidnap a woman so he could use her apartment as a hiding place. But after taking her to the apartment, he was surprised by the woman’s boyfriend, who was already inside the apartment. The two fought in the hallway before Nichols fled presumably sending him in search of another victim.

Around 8:30am Saturday March 12th carpenters arriving for work find U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent David G. Wilhelm dead in his unfinished house. It was reported that Wilhelm had been shot and killed late Friday night at his new home on Canter Street in the Buckhead section of Atlanta which was just south of the Lenox MARTA station. Agent Wilhelm's badge, gun and blue Chevrolet pickup truck were stolen. Wilhelm was working alone laying tile in the bathroom in the home, which was under construction, at the time of his slaying, said Kenneth Smith, special agent in charge of the ICE office.^[9] Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue announced that there was a reward of approximately $65,000 for information leading to Nichols' arrest.^[10]

At 9:50am Gwinnett County 9-1-1 received a call saying Nichols was the at the Bridgewater Apartments in Duluth, Georgia, approximately 27 miles north of Atlanta in Gwinnett County. Gwinnette Police, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms responded to the scene. The Gwinnett SWAT team quickly surrounded the apartment. After some time, Nichols walked out of the apartment waving a white towel and surrendered peacefully to the SWAT Team 26hours after the rampage began. Atlanta police chief Richard Pennington admitted surprise that Nichols surrendered peacefully. Agent Wilhelm's Chevy pickup was found about two miles away from the apartment at a nearby industrial complex.

It was later learned that around 2am on March 12th Nichols approached a woman named Ashley Smith in the parking lot of the Bridgwater Apartment. He pointed a gun at her and said "If you do what I say, I won't kill you". He forced her inside her apartment and reportedly told her that he was a wanted man. Nichols forced her into the bathroom and tied her up with an electrical cord and duct tape. He placed a hand towel over her head while he took a shower (so that she wouldn't have to watch him). She was sitting on a stool with the towel around her eyes when she told him about her five-year-old daughter Paige and how she was supposed to visit her that day. Thinking she may never see her daughter again, she tried to reason with him.

Smith was held hostage for several hours in her apartment, during which time Nichols requested marijuana, but Smith told him she only had "ice" (methamphetamine). In her book Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero, Smith revealed that she “had been struggling with a methamphetamine addiction when she was taken hostage,” and the last time she used meth “was 36 hours before Nichols held a gun to her and entered her home. Nichols wanted her to use the drug with him, but she refused.”^[11] Instead, she chose to read to him from the Bible and Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life. She tried to convince Nichols to turn himself in by sharing with him how her husband "had died in her arms four years earlier after being stabbed during a brawl."^[12] Smith also writes that she asked Nichols “if he wanted to see the danger of drugs and lifted up her tank top several inches to reveal a five-inch scar down the center of her torso — the aftermath of a car wreck caused by drug-induced psychosis. She says she let go of the steering wheel when she heard a voice saying, ‘Let go and let God.’”^[12] When news of his crimes was reported on television, Nichols looked to the ceiling and asked the Lord to forgive him. Nichols asked her to follow him in her car while he drove the customs agent's pickup truck away from the apartment complex. She asked whether she could bring her cell phone and he said she could but she never placed a call. She picked him up after he dropped off the truck and drove back to her home with him, she said. Her decision had a courageous purpose: She feared that he would kill more people if she did not do what he said. She had taken it upon herself to end the manhunt. After they returned to her apartment Smith cooked breakfast for Nichols. She began to ask him if she could leave to go see her daughter and he finally agreed. When Nichols let Smith leave her apartment that morning to visit her daughter, Smith placed a call to 9-1-1 at 9:50am.

Police initially thought that Smith may have had a prior relationship with Nichols but later learned she chosen at random. "She's a remarkable lady," said Maj. Bart Hulsey, commander of Gwinnett County's SWAT team. "She managed to make a rapport with him and made herself a person, not just an object, and she has an amazing capability for survival." But Smith downplayed her efforts and later said "Throughout my time with Mr. Nichols, I continued to rely [on] my faith in God. God has helped me through tough times before, and he'll help me now," she told reporters in Augusta, Georgia. "It's natural to focus on the conclusion of any story, but my role was really very small in the grand scheme of things. The real heroes were the judicial and law enforcement officials who gave their lives and those who risked their lives to bring this to an end," she said.^[13]

On March 25th 2005 Ashley Smith received $70,000 in reward money for helping with Nichols capture. Smith received $25,000 from the U.S. Marshals Office, $20,000 from the FBI, $10,000 from Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue's office, $5,000 from the Georgia Sheriffs' Association, $5,000 from the Georgia Fraternal Order of Police and $5,000 from the city of Atlanta. She previously received $2,500 from the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police.^[14]

[edit] The Confession

After his arrest, Nichols was taken to a FBI field office in Decatur, Georgia where he was initially held on a federal charge of possession of a firearm by a person under indictment. Nichols was then transferred to the Atlanta Police station where he was interviewed by Atlanta Police Detective Vincent Velazquez. Nichols confessed on video and detailed his crimes over the three-and-a-half-hour statement he made to police without any lawyer present. Nichols was in custody for about two hours when he agreed to make a videotaped statement about the courthouse shootings without an attorney by his side. Nichols even signed a waiver before talking to detectives. He describes how he flung the much smaller female deputy into the concrete wall like a rag doll. After taking her weapon instead of escaping down nearby stairs, he ran across a skybridge to hunt down the judge in his rape case. He said Barnes was nice, but part of a larger system of injustice. He also killed the judge's court reporter when she stood to check on the judge. He said he shot the sheriff's sergeant outside the courthouse so he could escape and he later shot the federal agent in Buckhead while stealing his car. He also admitted holding Ashley Smith hostage in her apartment before he surrendered.

"I was actually very impressed that they didn't shoot me when I walked out the door," Nichols told police in the videotaped interview on March 12, 2005. “He was very up front and very detailed and meticulous in telling me what happened,” Velazquez said. “It was one of the easiest interviews I’ve ever done.”^[15][16]

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said he saw Nichols shortly after he was taken into custody and he appeared to be "someone who was proud of what he had done -- that he did not show remorse."

[edit] Indictment

On May 5, 2005, he was indicted by a Fulton County grand jury on 54 counts including murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, theft, carjacking, and escape from authorities.^[17]

Nichols subsequently pled not guilty to the charges on May 17. Jury selection began in January 2007. Nichols' attorneys disclosed at that time that they wanted to defend Nichols on the basis of mental health. They did not disclose any further information.^[18] Nichols' pre-trial hearing commenced mid-September 2007. His defense attorneys submitted that they were not receiving enough funding. Nichols' attorneys attributed this to the Georgia legislature limiting state funding for defense attorneys, the prosecution continuing to interview witnesses (which the defense then must interview) and the complication of factoring in the mental health defense. His trial was expected to commence October 2, 2007, but was delayed (see Trial delayed, below).^[19]

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced he would seek the death penalty. Nichols is expected to become Georgia's most expensive defendant, with his case likely topping $5 million for the prosecution and defense combined. The judge and Standards Council assigned Nichols four attorneys.

The prosecution secured a 54-count indictment and has more than 600 people on its witness list. That's the most of any death penalty case that Mears, who has written books on the death penalty in Georgia, is aware of in his 24-year career.

The trial also could become one of the longest death penalty cases in the state's history, lasting up to seven months instead of the usual four to six weeks.

[edit] Nichols' family reaction

Nichols' parents were not available for immediate reaction, as they were traveling abroad in Africa where Nichols' mother works. She is a former agent for the Internal Revenue Service and is helping set up a tax system. Nichols' father is retired from the restaurant business. She became aware of her son's case via a CNN broadcast while in Tanzania. She remains in contact with Nichols' criminal attorney Barry Hazen via email.

Nichols' brother Mark was very upset, quoting "Everyone knows me as the brother of the person who killed those people".

"The only thing I can say is, our hearts go out to the people in Georgia," said Reginald Smalls, Nichols' uncle. "I really mean that ... Brian is a nice young man, as far as we know. I don't know what happened."

Childhood friend Maxine Glover described Nichols as a "normal young child playing with the other kids in the block, very well mannered, had no problems with him at all".

His daughter who is in high school says that she was shocked.

Nichols' father Gene Nichols was interviewed at the start of the death penalty trial, said he has been surrounded by sadness every day since the March 11, 2005, killings.

"It never leaves you," he said Friday. "I don't think it's going to get any better. You try to go to sleep at night, and if you can, that's the only time it leaves you." Gene Nichols said he and his wife have also reached out to the widow of Judge Barnes to let her know they are sorry for her loss.^[20]

[edit] Courthouse security concerns

The shooting deaths of three people in a courthouse by Nichols led to intense debate about the state of security in public buildings, especially courtrooms.

There was intense controversy about the security practices and staffing at the courthouse which unfolded over the next few months.^[21]

March 24, 2005 Fulton County judges order their own security review of courthouse security.

March 27, 2005 A security audit of the Fulton County Courthouse begins.

March 31, 2005 The union representing Fulton County deputies recommend courthouse safety upgrades, including improving training and equipment.

April 22, 2005 A 25-member task force begins looking into courthouse security.

May 9, 2005 The task force announces key recommendations to improve courthouse security, including installing cameras in all courtrooms, using two deputies to escort high-risk inmates, using proper restraints on inmates, and the use of special doors in courthouse holding cells that allow deputies to handcuff inmates before they enter the cell.

July 8, 2005 The Fulton County Courthouse Security Commission releases its report outlining security mistakes made on March 11, 2005. The report found that the courthouse was understaffed by security personnel. While about 235 deputies were assigned to courthouse, the report said there should be over 300. The report recommended that civilian bailiffs be used for administrative duties so deputies can focus on security. It also recommended that panic buttons be installed under courtroom desks and that an emergency plan be in place in case of a security breach at the courthouse. ^[22]

August 8, 2005 Eight Fulton County deputies are fired due to their actions during the courthouse shootings.

October 5, 2005 The Fulton County Sheriff's Department internal review of the courthouse shootings is released.

An episode of American Justice titled "Murder in the Court" deals with famous legal-related murders including the one done by Brian Nichols and the attack on the Chicago federal judge.

[edit] Trial delayed

Over 3 years after the shooting, Nichols' trial has yet to begin. It was reported on January 30, 2008, that Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller, who took on the case after local judges recused themselves due to their friendship with the murdered judge, has himself decided to step down. Fuller had suspended the trial indefinitely because the state public defender's office, amid a budget crunch, had cut off funding to Nichols' lawyers. He agreed to be interviewed by CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who incorporated remarks made during the interview into an article subsequently published in the January 30 issue of The New Yorker. In it, Fuller said the "only defense" open to Nichols' defense attorneys was an insanity defense, "because everyone in the world knows he did it."^[3]

In his letter to the chief judge for Fulton County Superior Court, Judge Fuller stated that "judicial impartiality, real and perceived, is a critical element of the trial process," and "in light of recent media reports, I am no longer hopeful that I can provide a trial perceived to be fair to both the state and the accused."

Nichols' eventual trial was scheduled to take place in July in the very courtroom where two of his murders were committed, but Superior Court Judge James Bodiford, brought in from nearby Cobb County, ruled that "fundamental fairness" made it necessary to move the trial to another location in Fulton County within 10 days.^[23]

While awaiting trial it was discovered that Nichols is suspected of plotting a second escape attempt. District Attorney Paul Howard's office confirmed that the Attorney General was asked to appoint an outside prosecutor to investigate Nichols' security at the Fulton County jail. The independent investigation so far has discovered that Nichols allegedly got direct and indirect help while in custody in Fulton County, not only from his girlfriend, but also from two deputies who were reportedly paid cash for favors, a paralegal who worked for Nichols' lawyers and Nichols' brother.

Reports said Nichols asked his long-distance girlfriend Lisa Meneguzzo to go to a Home Depot store and make a purchase of construction tools including a masonry saw, a circular saw, and a jack. Nichols is said to have plotted an escape by sawing his way out of a cement block and exiting. The reported plot did not get past the planning stages and Nichols was moved to DeKalb County jail in October 2006.^[24][25]

[edit] The Trial

On Monday, September 22, 2008, roughly 3 1/2 years after the crimes Nichols' trial began in courtroom 6B of the Atlanta Municipal Court in front of Judge Bodiford. At 11:12 a.m, Nichols officially entered his plea: not guilty by reason of insanity. Nichols’ defense team moved again to delay the trial but Bodiford refused.

“It is no surprise to the lawyers and to any observers that I am denying the continuance,” Bodiford said. “There has got to be a deadline… and we have reached our deadline.” ^[26]

A jury of six black women, two white women, two black men, one white man and one Asian man are hearing the case. They were selected after a nine-week process in which more than 240 prospective jurors were questioned. Georgia taxpayers are paying the bill for Nichols case and some estimates are that it will ultimately cost taxpayers at least $5 million to prosecute and defend Nichols. In addition to the costs for Nichols' defense, the shootings have also gouged the budget for Fulton County, which is on the hook for at least $10 million in settlement fees to victims' families. Barnes' widow won a $5.2 million lawsuit last month. And county commissioners on Wednesday agreed to pay $5 million to Brandau's daughter, Christina Scholte, who also sued.^[27]

The prosecution opening was marked by the playing of an audiotape of the gunshots that killed Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland W. Barnes and court reporter Julie Anne Brandau, whose tape recorder-left running-preserved her last moments of life. Played by lead prosecutor Kellie Hill, the tape at first began with what Hill called a moment of “regular courtroom tranquility” of a lawyer’s argument to the court — until the first BANG rang out. Then, the apparent confusion of stunned civil lawyers and a second shot, four seconds later. Shrieking erupted. “DON’T HURT ME DON’T HURT ME,” came the breathless plea of a woman. “HELP DON”T HURT ME.” The screams of Barnes’s staff attorney were recorded as Brandau fell across her, fatally shot through the head.^[28][29]

Hill said Barnes had been shot in the head from behind. As the lawyers in the rape case fled the courtroom, they had to step over Barnes’ body.

Nichols' counsel, a nationally known death-penalty litigator from Charlotte, attorney Henderson Hill, acknowledged in his opening statement to the jury that the "terrible, almost unspeakable things that happened on March 11" were "at Mr. Nichols' hands." He acknowledged that Nichols also was guilty of the rape and aggravated assault of his longtime girlfriend-the crime for which Nichols was being tried in front of Barnes. The dispute is not over the details of the crimes, Henderson Hill told the jury. The key question is whether Nichols is not guilty by reason of insanity. "That's the question: whether he's crazy or delusional," he said. The delusional disorder that Henderson Hill claimed has plagued Nichols led him to believe he was in a war in which he was a slave rebelling against the United States and plantation politics. The delusional disorder that Nichols suffers, Henderson Hill said, manifested itself in Nichols' addiction to video games in which he came to believe he was a real superhero.

Early in the trial the prosecution sought to cut away at the defense plea that Nichols is not guilty by reason of insanity. On the stand Gayle Abramson Csehy, the former Fulton County prosecutor who tried Nichols twice in 2005 on charges he raped his former girlfriend said she never saw any signs of mental illness in Nichols when she met with him and his attorney during the rape trial. She said Nichols’ attorney never mentioned his client’s alleged mental illnesses, either. Asked what Nichols’ demeanor was like during the rape trial, she replied: “Confident. I hate to use a cliche, but cool, calm and collected.” Far from seeming delusional, she said, he seemed constantly alert and scheming. In the afternoon, Defense Attorney Henderson Hill probed her again and again until she finally lost her cool during a testy exchange.“I’m an attorney, and I know what your defense is,” she said. “And it is B.S.”^[30]

The prosecution stated a primary witness, Cynthia Hall, will not be able to testify at trial. She has no memory of the last day she trusted Brian Nichols. The beating she took on March 11, 2005, left her an invalid. The former Fulton County sheriff’s deputy is now blind in her right eye and her eyelid droops. Her brain damage is causing confusion, memory problems, difficulty with speech and she has difficulty walking unassisted according to Dr. Gerald Bilsky, the assistant director for the brain injury unit at the Shepherd Center.^{[31] [32]}Witnesses testified during the trial that she was his guard and had become friendly with him. She seemed to trust him and did not require he wear customary leg shackles. She chatted with the inmate in the manner of friends, and he seemed to have won special concessions from her. “They seemed to be quite familiar with each other,” former Fulton County sheriff’s deputy Sharon Pauls said on the stand.. “They talked about the case, what had happened in court, they talked about their children.”^[33]

[edit] See also

• Floyd Allen

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Recording of Gwinnett County Police capturing Nichols
• Man Flees After Killing Judge and 2 Others at Atlanta Court (subscription required)
• Defendant overpowers deputy, kills 3
• "Judge, Two Others Killed in Atlanta Courthouse Shooting; Manhunt Continues"
• Grand Jury Indicts Nichols
• Hostage Gave Meth to Atlanta Fugitive
• Lawyers for Brian Nichols Back in Court for Motions article on the trial (April 17, 2006)
• State of the trial 2007
• USA Today's report on the incident
• Article update from the New Yorker, February 4, 2008